Belarus border crisis: Britain's Defence Sec pledges support to Poland

British Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace expressed support for Poland on Thursday (November 18) amid the migrant crisis the country is facing at its border with Belarus. Visiting his Polish counterpart, Wallace said "what's happening on the Belarus border is a deliberate and concerted attempt to destabilise, not only Poland, but some of the other neighbouring countries." European countries accuse Minsk of flying in thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, and pushing them to cross the border illegally, as a tactic to punish Europe for sanctions imposed over a Belarusian crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. He called on the Belarusian regime "to stop this appalling effort to use humans as a way to destabilise countries." The Polish Minister of Defence, Mariusz Blaszczak, said Britain sent a "reconnaissance group of UK soldiers" to Poland on Nov.11. He added a division of British military engineers will "soon" come to Poland to "help with the construction of the temporary fence." Poland said on Thursday the number of attempts to cross its border from Belarus had risen, while thousands of migrants remained trapped on the frontier in frozen woods in a standoff between East and West. The Sun newspaper brings you the latest breaking news videos and explainers from the UK and around the world Become a Sun Subscriber and hit the bell to be the first to know Read The Sun: http://www.thesun.co.uk Like The Sun on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesun/ Follow The Sun on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSun Subscribe to The Sun on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/The_Sun/1633225139 #Belarus #Poland #MigrantCrisis